You will need appropriate keywords to construct searches when using the databases. Keywords will help you refine and narrow your search. These keywords you use in your searches can also include names, legislation, and phrases.
You can often find keywords in your assignment prompt to help you construct searches.
In this excerpt from a Research Starter article on Trail of Tears:
We see words including Indian Removal Act, Native Americans, ancestral lands, Creeks, etc. Also, note that the links will take you to another article. In addition, you can see the names of some people involved in the event that might require more research.
Once you start searching in the databases, continue to look for clues because you can frequently discover keywords in the search results list. Look in the following places in the individual database records:
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The subjects will usually reveal terms you wouldn't think of off the top of your head.
There are some subjects that might be useful keywords, including forced removal and relocation.
Abstracts are summaries of the work. You may discover new ideas, concepts or search terms.
Looking at the abstract, we can see that population losses for the Cherokees during the forced relocation may have been much greater than previously thought. Terms like relocation, mortality, deaths might be useful if you are trying to find information about deaths during the relocation.
Titles like the one above give you a clues. In the example above, we see that American Indian losses may be greater than originally thought using new methods of calculation.